The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

an intense connection with his dead son: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 443.

  “to treat the past”: TR to CRR, Mar. 7, 1908, in LTR, Vol. 6, p. 966.

  “We are now holding”: Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt: The Formative Years, p. 395.

  “Reform Without Bloodshed”: Harper’s Weekly, April 19, 1884.

  “prolonged and expensive . . . won’t have it”: Hudson, Random Recollections of an Old Political Reporter, pp. 148–49.

  “As debate is . . . field of national politics”: Daily Freeman [n.p.], April 12, 1883, Clipping Scrapbook, TRC.

  “by far the most objectionable”: TR to ARC, June 8, 1884, in LTR, Vol. 1, pp. 70–71.

  “Our defeat is . . . a historic scene”: TR to ARC, June 8, 1884, in ibid.

  “Although not a very”: TR to Simon North, April 30, 1884, in ibid., p. 66.

  a “great school” for Roosevelt: Hagedorn et al., “Memorandum of Conversation,” p. 73, TRC.

  “We did not agree”: Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, p. 59.

  “Words with me are instruments”: Gable, ed., The Man in the Arena: Speeches and Essays, p. 12.

  “There is little use”: Ibid., p. 55.

  “only through strife”: Ibid., p. 42.

  this intuitive emotional intelligence: Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 39.

  CHAPTER FOUR: Nellie Herron Taft

  “It was at a coasting party”: HHT, Recollections of Full Years, p. 7.

  “Tall and slender . . . her whole countenance”: Washington Post, May 5, 1907.

  Harriet moved to Ohio . . . lawyer John Herron: HHT, Recollections of Full Years, pp. 5–6.

  “Quite like living”: RBH Diary, Jan. 8, 1850, RBH Papers.

  “had no other friend”: Harriet Collins Herron to RBH, July 8, 1889, RBH Papers.

  “to go for money”: Anthony, Nellie Taft, p. 30.

  “I wish I could accept”: John Herron to RBH, Dec. 18, 1875, RBH Papers.

  “not particularly . . . finely kept shrubbery”: HHT, Recollections of Full Years, pp. 3–4.

  “A book . . . has more”: HHT Diary, Aug. 23, 1880, WHTP.

  The curriculum at The Nursery: Anthony, Nellie Taft, pp. 28–29.

  “the inspiration”: HHT, Recollections of Full Years, p. 7.

  planned to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary: RBH Diary, Jan. 12, 1878, RBH Papers; NYT, Jan. 1, 1878.

  “her baby has”: John Herron to RBH, Dec. 26, 1877, RBH Papers.

  “I feel very much”: Anthony, Nellie Taft, p. 31.

  “profusely decorated”: NYT, Jan. 1, 1878; Dubuque [IA] Herald, Jan. 1, 1878.

  brought “the house alive”: Anthony, Nellie Taft, p. 32.

  “to marry a man . . . marry an Ohio man”: Alton [IL] Evening Telegraph, Dec. 2, 1908.

  “Nothing in my life”: Washington Post, May 5, 1907.

  “She was intoxicated”: RSB, “The Measure of Taft,” The American Magazine (July 1910), p. 366.

  to “receive attentions”: HHT Diary, Sept. 5, 1879, WHTP.

  “exceedingly . . . valiantly to each other”: HHT Diary, Mar. 10, 1880, WHTP.

  “I am blue . . . as if I were fifty”: HHT Diary, July 13, 1880, WHTP.

  “be busy and accomplish something”: HHT Diary, Sept. 5, 1879, WHTP.

  more than her father would pay: HHT Diary, Oct. 21, 1879, WHTP.

  “I would much rather”: Ibid.

  “enjoy all the comforts”: Anthony, Nellie Taft, p. 27.

  “a repressed nervousness”: Ibid.

  “I am beginning”: HHT Diary, June 4, 1880, WHTP.

  “that adorable . . . he strikes me with awe”: HHT to Alice Keys, July 5, 1880, WHTP.

  her “stupid state”: HHT Diary, Aug. 17, 1880, WHTP.

  gambled at cards . . . late at night: HHT Diary, Aug. 17 & 27, 1880, WHTP.

  the first visit by a president to the west coast: HHT Diary, Aug. 21, 1880, WHTP.

  Nellie was left behind: HHT Diary, Aug. 28, 1880, WHTP.

  “I have not read”: HHT Diary, Sept. 1, 1880, WHTP.

  “He is very sympathetic . . . as much as yours”: HHT Diary, Jan. 15, 1881, WHTP.

  “I am perfectly delighted”: HHT Diary, Sept. 6, 1883, WHTP.

  “drank beer . . . like a comrade & man”: HHT Diary, Sept. 6, 1883, WHTP.

  “Do you realize”: Harriet Collins Herron to HHT, Mar. 19, 1882, CPT Papers.

  “two dreadful letters . . . congenial work”: HHT Diary, May 5, 1882, WHTP.

  “The meeting at Miss Herron’s”: WHT to Frances Taft, Jan. 6, 1883, WHTP.

  They resolved daily to read aloud: HHT Diary, July 9, 1883, WHTP.

  “long and very tough”: HHT Diary, Aug. 6, 1883, WHTP.

  “repair” their “exhausted intellects”: HHT Diary, Aug. 8, 1883, WHTP.

  “Mamma thinks”: HHT Diary, Sept. 29, 1883, WHTP.

  “Why should I take”: Ibid.

  “All week I have been”: HHT Diary, Oct. 6, 1883, WHTP.

  “Nellie Herron has made”: WHT to Frances Taft, Feb. 28, 1884, WHTP.

  “that sweet school”: WHT to HHT, Mar. 12, 1884, WHTP.

  “very heated especially”: WHT to LTT, Mar. 2, 1884, WHTP.

  “I am not satisfied”: WHT to HHT, Mar. 29, 1884, WHTP.

  Will played the beautiful princess: HHT, Recollections of Full Years, p. 8.

  “the only notable exception . . . social career”: WHT to Frances Taft, Feb. 11, 1883, WHTP.

  “the greatest credit . . . act on that theory”: WHT to LTT, Mar. 2, 1884, WHTP.

  “After awhile I found”: WHT to Alice Keys, Aug. 19, 1885, WHTP.

  “Trollope is a great favorite”: WHT to HHT, Aug. 9, 1884, WHTP.

  “my own appreciation”: WHT to LTT, Mar. 8, 1885, WHTP.

  “It seems . . . to the fact that I loved her”: WHT to Alphonso Taft, July 12, 1885, WHTP.

  “with overwhelming force”: WHT to HHT, June 17, 1885, WHTP.

  “I never have been certain”: Anthony, Nellie Taft, p. 73.

  “I love you Nellie”: WHT to HHT, May 10, 1885, WHTP.

  “My love for you grew . . . won in a moment”: WHT to HHT, June 17, 1885, WHTP.

  “You know”: Pringle, Life and Times, Vol. 1, p. 108.

  “The more I knew her”: WHT to Alphonso Taft, July 12, 1885, WHTP.

  “Your sweet smile . . . by Fate today”: WHT to HHT, July 2, 1885, WHTP.

  “The only real pleasure”: WHT to HHT, July 16, 1885, WHTP.

  “It is the one who stays”: WHT to HHT, July 4, 1885, WHTP.

  “I long to settle down”: WHT to HHT, July 6, 1885, WHTP.

  “we must continue the salon”: WHT to HHT, July 20, 1885, WHTP.

  “I shall have the greatest”: WHT to HHT, July 6, 1885, WHTP.

  “comfortably and cosily . . . intelligence of the wife”: WHT to HHT, July 5, 1885, WHTP.

  “His temperament”: RSB, “The Measure of Taft,” The American Magazine (July 1910), p. 366.

  “guide, counsellor and friend”: WHT to Delia Herron, Nov. 1, 1885, WHTP.

  “You are becoming”: WHT to HHT, July 20, 1885, WHTP.

  “It is hard for me”: WHT to HHT, July 11, 1885, WHTP.

  “an equal partnership”: WHT to HHT, July 15, 1885, WHTP.

  “business had been . . . as much work”: WHT to HHT, July 20, 1885, WHTP.

  “a good and just member of society”: Anthony, Nellie Taft, p. 73.

  “a very hastily . . . no credit”: WHT to LTT, April 16, 1885, WHTP.

  “As usual”: Horace Taft to LTT, April 19, 1885, WHTP.

  “Each day has found . . . by George Eliot”: WHT to LTT, Aug. 2, 1885, WHTP.

  “I knew you would be”: WHT to Alice Keys, Aug. 16, 1885, WHTP.

  “How much I appreciate”: Alice Keys to WHT, Aug. 31, 1885, WHTP.

  “What a pair”: Horace Taft to WHT,
Sept. 2, 1885, WHTP.

  “I went to the gymnasium . . . I felt lazy”: WHT to HHT, Feb. 22, 1886, WHTP.

  “I have given up”: WHT to HHT, Feb. 26, 1886, WHTP.

  “a superbly-fashioned satin”: Anthony, Nellie Taft, p. 83.

  “I hope you will think”: WHT to HHT, Mar. 6, 1886, WHTP.

  “The parlor is unchanged”: WHT to HHT, Mar. 10, 1886, WHTP.

  “a brilliant reception” . . . embark for Europe: Pringle, Life and Times, Vol. 1, p. 81.

  “my first taste”: HHT, Recollections of Full Years, p. 16.

  “just one thousand dollars”: Ibid., p. 17.

  “gentle beyond anything . . . catholic sympathies”: Ibid., pp. 18–19.

  home overlooking . . . the Ohio River: Alphonso Taft to WHT, July 5, 1886, WHTP.

  he had proudly amassed a catalogue: Anthony, Nellie Taft, p. 87.

  “Nellie,” he coyly questioned . . . “so unexpectedly”: HHT, Recollections of Full Years, pp. 21–22.

  “Wasn’t it immense”: Horace Taft to HHT, Feb. 4, 1887, WHTP.

  “was not a matter . . . of the Bench”: HHT, Recollections of Full Years, p. 22.

  “did not share this feeling”: Ibid.

  Taft sustained the lower court decision: “Moore’s & Co. v. Bricklayers’ Union et al.,” Weekly Law Bulletin & Ohio Law Journal, 23 (Columbus, OH: Capital Printing & Publ. Co., 1890), pp. 665–75.

  Decades later, it remained: Frederick N. Judson, “The Labor Decisions of Judge Taft,” American Monthly Review of Reviews (August 1907), p. 213.

  “right to work . . . combine to do”: “Moore’s & Co. v. Bricklayers’ Union et al.,” Weekly Law Bulletin & Ohio Law Journal, 23, pp. 668–69.

  “no freight moved”: Hurley, Cincinnati: The Queen City, p. 94.

  the strikers’ “revolutionary fervor”: Bruce C. Levine, Who Built America? Working People and the Nation’s Economy, Politics, Culture and Society (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992), p. 73.

  “If the little ones”: Ohio Educational Monthly & National Teacher, 43 (1894), pp. 413–14.

  Nellie devoted herself to teaching: HHT, Diary notebook, Dec. 1887, WHTP.

  “were conspiring against him”: Annie Sinton Taft to Horace Taft, June [n.d.], 1889, WHTP.

  “You may rely upon”: Ross, An American Family, p. 81.

  “the highest rank . . . his father was”: Annie Sinton Taft to Horace Taft, June [n.d.], 1889, WHTP.

  “Poor Peter! . . . wisely to remove him”: Henry W. Taft to Alphonso Taft, June 3, 1889, WHTP.

  “Every time the telephone”: WHT to Horace Taft, June 17, 1889, WHTP.

  he had abandoned Cincinnati: Ross, An American Family, pp. 101–02.

  “My chief regret”: Taft, Memories and Opinions, p. 60.

  he opened a private school: Ibid., p. 70.

  “Nellie took the pain . . . happy she is”: WHT to Alphonso Taft, Sept. 10, 1889, WHTP.

  “On the whole”: Ibid.

  “I suppose you wish”: Horace Taft to WHT, Oct. 22, 1889, WHTP.

  “He breathes good will”: Richard V. Oulahan, “William H. Taft as a Judge on the Bench,” American Monthly Review of Reviews (August 1907), p. 208.

  “upheld by the State Supreme Court”: Pringle, Life and Times, Vol. 1, p. 100.

  “would be satisfactory”: Ibid., p. 107.

  “pretty hopeful . . . a fine old Justice”: Horace Taft to WHT, May 7, 1889, WHTP.

  “O Yes”: WHT to Alphonso Taft, August [n.d.], 1889, WHTP.

  “chances of going”: WHT to Alphonso Taft, Aug. 24, 1889, WHTP.

  “It is a great event”: Alphonso Taft to WHT, Feb. 3, 1890, WHTP.

  “but it was I . . . a new interest in life”: LTT to WHT, Feb. 3, 1890, WHTP.

  “I was very glad”: HHT, Recollections of Full Years, p. 24.

  Only Will was reluctant . . . “one side of a case”: Peri E. Arnold, Remaking the Presidency: Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson, 1901–1916 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009), p. 77.

  “entirely unfamiliar . . . very little familiarity”: WHT to Alphonso Taft, Feb. 26, 1890, WHTP.

  “Go ahead, & fear not”: Alphonso Taft to WHT, Feb. 1, 1890, WHTP.

  “You will have”: Alphonso Taft to WHT, Feb. 3, 1890, WHTP.

  “To a large extent”: Alphonso Taft to WHT, Feb. 7, 1890, WHTP.

  “You have learned”: LTT to WHT, Feb. 3, 1890, WHTP.

  “I believe you are”: Alphonso Taft to WHT, Feb. 7, 1890, WHTP.

  a “brilliant reception” at the Lincoln Club: Sandusky [OH] Daily Register, Feb. 11, 1890.

  “He arrived at six o’clock . . . why on earth he had come”: HHT, Recollections of Full Years, p. 25.

  “It is not a large house”: WHT to H. D. Peck, April 26, 1890, WHTP.

  “one of the nicest”: John W. Herron to HHT, April 18, 1890, WHTP.

  “Our house is what . . . at night at home”: WHT to Alphonso Taft, April 18, 1890, WHTP.

  CHAPTER FIVE: Edith Carow Roosevelt

  “vast silent spaces . . . lonely rivers”: TR, An Autobiography, p. 93.

  domestic bliss was “lived out”: TR, Personal Diary, Feb. 17, 1884, TRP.

  “any man ever loved a woman”: TR, Personal Diary, Mar. 11, 1880, TRP.

  he resigned himself: Hermann Hagedorn, Interview with William Merrifield, June [n.d.], 1919, TRC.

  “the head of a great buffalo bull”: TR to Alice Lee Roosevelt, Sept. 20, 1883, in H. W. Brands, T.R.: The Last Romantic (New York: Basic Books, 1997), p. 158.

  the Elkhorn and the Chimney Butte: TR, Hermann Hagedorn, and G. B. Grinnell, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman; Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1927), p. 10.

  the sum his father bequeathed: Morris, EKR, p. 77.

  “The plains stretch”: TR, Hunting Trips, pp. 151–52.

  “noontide hours . . . hopeless, never-ending grief”: Ibid., pp. 309–10.

  on his horse sixteen hours a day: Hermann Hagedorn, Roosevelt in the Bad Lands (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), p. 156.

  “hardest work . . . gathered for market”: TR, Hunting Trips, p. 13.

  “preparing breakfast”: Ibid., p. 327.

  “These long, swift rides”: Ibid., p. 329.

  “Black care”: Ibid.

  “enough excitement . . . sleep well at night”: TR to ARC, Sept. 20, 1884, in LTR, Vol. 1, p. 81.

  “The story-high house”: TR, Hunting Trips, p. 10.

  “Parkman and Irving”: Hagedorn, Roosevelt in the Bad Lands, p. 108.

  steadily before “the flickering firelight”: TR, Hunting Trips, p. 305.

  he relaxed in his rocking chair . . . “cool breeze”: Ibid., p. 10.

  As the crisp autumn . . . rounding up cattle: Ibid., p. 306.

  “Where everything before . . . withered grass”: Ibid., p. 126.

  “dwindled to . . . never-ending” nights: Ibid., p. 341.

  gathered round the fireplace . . . hermit thrushes and meadowlarks: Ibid., pp. 305–7, 12.

  “will take a leading”: NYT, July 13, 1885.

  house stood atop a hill: TR, An Autobiography, p. 318.

  “no day was long enough”: Parsons, Perchance Some Day, p. 26.

  “Especially memorable . . . just around the corner”: Ibid., p. 63.

  “She was the only one . . . oh so attractive!”: Michael Teague, Mrs. L: Conversations with Alice Roosevelt Longworth (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1981), p. 10.

  “had an extraordinary gift”: Hermann and Mary Hagedorn, “Interview with Mrs. Nicholas Longworth, November 9, 1954,” TRC.

  Had “she been a man”: Hermann and Mary Hagedorn, “Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield Cowles and Mrs. Joseph Alsop, Jr., November 22, 1954,” TRC.

  the two were secretly engaged: Hermann Hagedorn, The Roosevelt Family of Sagamore Hill (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1954), p. 426.

  “You know all about”: EKR to TR, June 8, 1886, Derby Papers, TRC.

  Her father, Charles Carow: Morri
s, EKR, p. 10.

  a fortune in iron manufacturing: EKR, American Backlogs: The Story of Gertrude Tyler and Her Family, 1660–1860 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928), pp. 32, 34.

  “find great attention . . . an ornament to society”: Daniel Tyler to Gertrude Tyler, Aug. 14, 1852, in ibid., pp. 86–87.

  “Do not doubt”: Gertrude Tyler to [her mother], Sept. 20, 1852, in ibid., p. 93.

  “My dear Sir”: Charles Carow to Daniel Tyler, Mar. 7, 1859, in ibid., p. 233.

  “the risk of sailing”: John Lynch, Causes of the reduction of American Tonnage and the decline of navigation interests, being a report of a Select committee made to the House of Representatives of the United States, on February 17, 1870 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1870), pp. ix–x.

  “My dear little girl . . . up in the morning”: Charles Carow to EKR, May [n.d.], 186[?], TRC.

  “precious little monkey”: EKR, “Second Composition Book,” May 18, 1875, TRC.

  “Almost the first thing . . . light and colour”: EKR to TR, June 8, 1886, TRC.

  “a passion for fairy tales”: Ibid.

  “Oh fairy tales”: EKR, “Fairy Tales” in P.O.R.E. Notebook, Jan. 6, 1877, TRC.

  “I got your letter”: Charles Carow to EKR, [n.d.], 1871, TRC.

  he took Edith on long walks: Sylvia Jukes Morris, “Portrait of a First Lady,” in Natalie A. Naylor, Douglas Brinkley, and John Allen Gable, eds., Theodore Roosevelt: Many-Sided American (Interlaken, NY: Heart of the Lakes Publ., 1992), p. 64.

  “pledged friends”: CRR, My Brother, p. 44.

  hide her “old and broken toys”: EKR, “In Memory of Corinne Roosevelt Robinson,” TRC.

  “the school room”: Ibid.

  Our Young Folks: TR, An Autobiography, p. 16.

  “at the cost of . . . girls’ stories”: Ibid.

  “I think imagination”: EKR to TR, June 8, 1886, TRC.

  “It was verry”: TR, Diaries of Boyhood and Youth, p. 13.

  “homesickness and longings”: Ibid., p. 103.

  “Whenever they see”: EKR to CRR, Feb. 1, 1870, Derby Papers, TRC.

  a bankruptcy warrant was issued: NYT, Mar. 1, April 1, & April 27, 1871.

  “terrifying charm . . . clear-cut features”: Parsons, Perchance Some Day, p. 20.

  The curriculum included: Morris, EKR, p. 33.

  “When I come home . . . hope to get them”: EKR, “First Composition Book,” Nov. 28, 1871, TRC.

  “I have gone back”: EKR to Kermit Roosevelt, Feb. 24, 1938, KR Papers.